Memory devices are typically provided as internal, semiconductor, integrated circuits in computers or other electronic devices. There are many different types of memory, including random-access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), flash memory, resistance variable memory, such as phase change random access memory (PCRAM) and resistive random access memory (RRAM), and magnetic random access memory (MRAM), such as spin torque transfer random access memory (STT RAM), among others.
MRAM devices can employ a magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) that can be viewed as a multi-state resistor due to different relative orientations (e.g., parallel and antiparallel) of the magnetic moments, which can change the magnitude of a current passing through the device. In a write process, magnetic fields caused by currents passing through conductive lines can be used to switch a magnetic moment direction of a “free” material of the MTJ, which can place the device in a high or low resistance state. A read process can then be used to determine the state of cell.
MRAM devices can also employ structures exhibiting giant magnetoresistance (GMR), such as spin valves. GMR can be observed in thin film structures composed of alternating ferromagnetic and nonmagnetic material. GMR can result in a change in electrical resistance depending on whether the magnetization of adjacent ferromagnetic materials is in a parallel or an anti-parallel alignment. A spin valve can alternate its electrical resistance (e.g., from high to low or from low to high) depending on the alignment of two or more conducting magnetic materials, in order to exploit the giant magnetoresistive effect.
As the size of MRAM cells decreases, the distance between adjacent cells also decreases, which can result in increased cell disturb caused by the current carrying lines used to switch the magnetic moment directions. As an example, the write current associated with a MRAM device can be about 10 mA, which can be problematic as the size of the MRAM cells and current carrying lines decreases. For instance, the smaller width lines can require greater currents to produce the necessary switching fields, which increases power consumption.
STT devices share some of the operational features of previous MTJ and GMR cells; however, switching of the free material magnetic moment (e.g., the write process) can be produced by passage of the spin polarized current itself. For instance, unpolarized conduction electrons passing through a first magnetic material having its magnetic moment oriented in a given direction (e.g. a “fixed” material) are preferentially polarized by their passage through that material by a quantum mechanical exchange interaction with the polarized bound electrons in the material. Such a polarization can occur to conduction electrons that reflect from the surface of the magnetized material as well as to those that pass through it. The efficiency of such a polarization process can depend upon the crystalline structure of the material. When such a stream of polarized conduction electrons subsequently pass through a second magnetic material (e.g., the “free” material) whose polarization direction is not fixed in space, the polarized conduction electrons exert a torque on the bound electrons in the magnetic materials which, if sufficient, can reverse the polarization of the bound electrons and, thereby, reverse the magnetic moment of the magnetic material.
The use of a current internal to the cell to cause the magnetic moment reversal provides for smaller currents (e.g., about 200 microamps) than those required to produce an external magnetic field (e.g., from adjacent current carrying lines) to produce the moment switching. However, further reduction in the current used to produce magnetic moment switching in STT RAM cells can provide benefits such as further reducing the energy consumption and thermal profile in the materials associated with such cells, which can improve cell integrity and reliability, among other benefits.